Chapter 4 Vulnerable Victims

Abstract

Being safe on holiday is an expected requirement. Places that develop an unsafe reputation can be substituted by alternative destinations that are perceived as safer for tourists. Beyond the obviously unsafe places in the world, where governments advise against travel, individuals must make up their own minds about where to go on holiday. One of the distinctive features of the tourism industry is that we cannot ‘test-drive’ a holiday beforehand. Judgements about where to travel are often made on the basis of imperfect knowledge and generalisation, and tourists learn about destinations from brochures, adverts and the media (Smith, 1989; Brunt, 1997). We typically think about what the destination has to offer in terms of accommodation, its environment and things to do (Crompton, 1979; Krippendorf, 1987) and many of us do not consider the issue of crime when we are planning the next holiday (Brunt et al., 2000). Are we more at risk of crime as tourists than in our everyday lives? Most of us would probably prefer not to think about this, and certainly the tourism industry does not want us to think such things in case we decide to stay at home. Whilst it is true that only a minority of tourists suffer criminal victimisation while on holiday, it is important to explore variations in the crime experiences of different tourist types. Crime patterns vary according to factors such as the nature of tourism, its scale, the type of development, the season, as well as variations relating to the tourists themselves and issues associated with their behaviour. This latter issue is the focus of this chapter – what categories of tourist are particularly vulnerable to criminal victimisation?